Professor John Fountoulis (+ January 24, 2007)

Prof. Fountoulis at a clerical conference

Dr. Georgios D. Panagopoulos,
Professor of Orthodox Dogmatics at the University Ecclesiastical Academy of Athens 

A few days ago, an elect soul, a man of God, Professor Ioannis (John) Fountoulis, departed from this vain world.

Ioannis Fountoulis was born in 1927 in Mesagros of Lesvos to parents from Asia Minor. He studied Theology at the University of Athens, from which he graduated with highest honors. He then pursued excellent postgraduate studies in Belgium, Germany, and France. He was awarded a doctorate by the Faculty of Theology of the University of Thessaloniki. He worked extensively and produced studies and books on liturgical manuscripts in libraries and museums both in Greece and abroad. He contributed articles to a multitude of journals within and outside Greece. He continued to work tirelessly even after his retirement. He participated in many conferences, at which he left an indelible personal mark. He labored creatively for the Church of Greece and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The local Church of his birthplace owes him much, since he contributed greatly to the discovery and promotion of the Saints of Lesvos. He was spiritually and by family ties connected with the late Metropolitan of Mytilene, His Eminence Iakovos II. He was married and the father of three children.

Venerable Xenia of Rome in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

This blessed and ever-memorable Xenia was from the glorious city of Rome, of an honorable lineage and zealous for the faith. When her parents wished to marry her and all preparations for the wedding had been made, the Saint arose and departed from the bridal chamber together with two other women, two handmaids. After boarding a ship and coming to know other lands, she finally arrived at the city of Mylasa. She was likely guided to that city by the divinely inspired monk Paul (who appeared to her from God in Alexandria and became her guide toward higher things). There she built a small oratory in the name of the Holy Protomartyr Stephen, and together with her two handmaids, as well as with some others who joined her, she lived patiently in great asceticism, abstaining from all sensual pleasures and following the path that leads to the heavenly city.

Thus she passed her life in the will of God, and after her holy and blessed repose she received testimony from God Himself. For at midday, when the sun was illuminating the earth, a cross appeared formed of stars. This cross was encircled and held at its center by another choir of stars, so that it appeared as a crown for the blessed Xenia, given to her by God for her fasting, her vigil, and her purity. And this became evident, for when her relic was laid beneath the earth, the choir and the circle of stars ceased to appear. The details concerning the Saint became known when one of her handmaids, at the time she was about to depart this life, recounted the homeland of the blessed one, her noble lineage, and the name she had received from her parents — for she was called Eusebia — which she changed to Xenia, because she strove to live in concealment.

Homily for the Commemoration of Saint Xenia of Petersburg (Fr. Daniel Sysoev)

 

Homily for the Commemoration of Saint Xenia of Petersburgh 

By Fr. Daniel Sysoev

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

I congratulate you all on the feast in honor of our beloved Saint Xenia of Petersburg! Even in Soviet times it was completely impossible to stop the stream of pilgrims to the grave of Blessed Xenia. The very phenomenon of Saint Xenia is remarkable: it is, of course, an example of how a person can serve God when it seems that life itself is entirely unfavorable to this. She lived in the eighteenth century, in the terrible post-Petrine era of widespread apostasy from God; in this respect even the nineteenth century was more pious. The eighteenth century was an age of debauchery and the degradation of Russian society (especially the upper classes), when such things were not only concealed but even flaunted.

It was in this time that the family of Andrei Fyodorovich and his wife Xenia lived. They were quite young: Andrei Fyodorovich was thirty years old, Xenia twenty-six. He held the rank of lieutenant colonel and was also a singer, singing with a magnificent tenor in the choir of the palace church (in the Winter Palace). Everything seemed to be going piously enough, but during one ball organized by Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, Andrei Fyodorovich was made very drunk; he went off to a female singer, and when he was walking away from her along the street, he was struck by a carriage.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Responds to Russian Propaganda and Updates on the Re-Opening of Halki

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in TA NEA Weekend: “As if I would fear Russian propaganda.”

The primate of Orthodoxy speaks to TA NEA Weekend about the war in Ukraine and the attack he has faced from Russia.

By Maria Mourelatou
TA NEA Weekend
January 24, 2026

On the occasion of his visit to Thessaloniki next Thursday, and against the backdrop of the tectonic changes in the postwar geopolitical order, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew speaks to Ta Nea Weekend, addressing messages in all directions.

Regarding the situation in Ukraine, the primate of Orthodoxy—who, as he notes, has from the outset stood by “the Ukrainian people, who are being severely tested by the Russian invasion”—makes it clear that this is not a “holy war,” but an expansionist war, “absolutely satanic,” which is “the result of vain people addicted to the opium of power.”

Rejecting the unprovoked attack he recently received from the press office of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, the Ecumenical Patriarch declares himself fearless in the face of the fire directed at both him and the Patriarchate by “dirty attacks” and by “Russian internet trolls,” speaking of “Stalinist propaganda tactics.” “I am not afraid of them,” he responds, while at the same time emphasizing, with regard to the global balance of terror, that “every war is a defeat for humanity.”

Prologue in Sermons: January 24

 

Against Complaining

January 24

(A Homily on Job and Love for the Poor.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Some Christians, when some misfortune befalls them, instead of bowing before the inscrutable ways of God’s Providence, remembering their sins and repenting of them, and placing all their hope in God, usually begin to complain and say: “Why is God punishing me? Does He really not see my sufferings? It seems to me that I did good to everyone — so-and-so and so-and-so, at such-and-such a time and such-and-such a time,” and so on without end. This, brethren, is not good. Such complaining reveals in a person a lack of love for God, little faith, self-love, and perhaps pride. In misfortunes one should not act this way. How then, you may ask, should one act? In this way, we reply: as the Holy Fathers teach. And how do they teach?

Holy Hieromartyr Clement of Ancyra in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

The note in the Synaxarion of Saint Clement, that his entire life was a single path of martyrdom, is also the central point emphasized by the Holy Hymnographer Theophanes, the poet of the Saint’s Canon.

“You traversed extended struggles upon the earth, O venerable one, and were thus deemed worthy to receive the crown of the Kingdom of Heaven.” 

“You endured, O most wise one, the wounds of tortures, long-lasting and drawn out over many years; therefore you were shown to be greatly victorious.” 

Indeed, one cannot but marvel at the multitude and the length of the tortures the Saint endured, with steadfast resolve, always fixing his gaze upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not collapse under the first blows. His executioners were methodical and cruel toward him: they knew how to torture him without delivering the decisive blow. Yet, of course, they remained on the surface of their torments. They did not know — and could not see — that these blows, transformed by the Saint’s faith and by the grace of God, became for him, and for the whole world, “achievements and a festival.”

Saint Clement of Ancyra Resource Page

St. Clement of Ancyra (Feast Day - January 23)

 Verses

The blood of Agathangelos and Clement,
Approached the mouth of the sword thirsty for blood.
On the twenty-third Agathangelos and Clement were beheaded.

 

Holy Hieromartyr Clement of Ancyra and His Disciple Agathangelos the Martyr

 

Saints Clement of Ancyra and His Disciple Agathangelos as Models for our Lives

 

January: Day 23: Teaching 1: Holy Hieromartyr Clement of Ancyra

 

January: Day 23: Teaching 2: Holy Hieromartyr Clement of Ancyra

 

Holy Hieromartyr Clement of Ancyra in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church 

 

Children Should Be Raised To Be Faithful To the End No Matter What: The Example of the Mother of St. Clement of Ancyra

 

The Last Legacy of the Byzantine Period in the Turkish Capital: The Church of Saint Clement of Ancyra

 

January: Day 23: Teaching 2: Holy Hieromartyr Clement of Ancyra

January: Day 23: Teaching 2:
Holy Hieromartyr Clement of Ancyra
 
(Edifying Lessons From the Life of the Holy Martyr Clement: 
a. Mothers Should Take Care of the Upbringing of Children; 
b. Children Should Obey Their Parents; 
c. We All Should Be Faithful to Jesus Christ)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. On this day the Holy Church celebrates the memory of one of the great and holy men of the ancient Church of Christ — Clement, Bishop of Ancyra. He was one of those great martyrs with whom the first centuries of Christianity are so richly adorned. For our age of weak faith and moral laxity, it is extremely beneficial to recall the feats of the true followers of Christ, who sealed their faith with the crown of martyrdom. Let us therefore, brethren, honor the memory of the martyr Clement with reverent remembrance of him.

Saint Clement was the son of a pious Christian woman and was himself raised in the rules of the Christian faith. The upbringing of her son in the faith of Christ was the sole task of the mother of Saint Clement. Saint Dimitri of Rostov thus describes the deathbed speech of this Christian mother of the third century to her twelve-year-old son:

Prologue in Sermons: January 23

The Crown of Love for One’s Neighbors

January 23

(Commemoration of Paulinus the Bishop, who gave away all his possessions in alms, and afterward even gave himself to be sold to the pagans.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

The crown of love for one’s neighbors is to lay down one’s life for them. “Greater love than this,” says the Savior, “no one has, than to lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). But what does it mean to lay down one’s life for one’s friends? It means that, in time of need, one must be ready for every kind of feat of self-denial. If life is required—give your life; freedom—give your freedom; property—be deprived of your property. In a word, be ready to sacrifice everything, not excluding even yourself.

Does this amaze you, brethren? Do not be amazed. True, perhaps such people are not found today, but in former times they did exist. And behold how far their love for their neighbors sometimes extended.

Saint Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, in order to ransom his fellow countrymen from captivity by the Vandals, distributed all his possessions and was left with absolutely nothing. At that time a widow came to him and asked that he give her money to ransom her son from captivity. The servant of God searched all the corners of his cell, hoping to find something, but found nothing. Coming out to the petitioner, he said: “Believe me, I have nothing with which to ransom your son except myself. Therefore, if you wish, sell me as a slave in exchange for your son, and let him return.”